BNP leader Griffin called Islam a 'wicked, vicious faith'

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Nick Griffin and Mark Collett

British National Party leader Nick Griffin told a crowd that Islam was a "wicked, vicious faith" and Asian Muslims were turning Britain into a multiracial hell as they tried to conquer the country, a court heard today.

Griffin urged the gathering in Keighley, West Yorkshire, to vote BNP to ensure "the British people really realise the evil of what these people have done to our country".

The 47-year-old BNP chairman and fellow party activist Mark Collett face a series of charges arising out of speeches filmed by BBC journalist Jason Gwynne, who posed as a BNP supporter in Bradford, for a documentary on the party.

The jury trying the pair at Leeds Crown Court was told both men addressed a crowd at the Reservoir Tavern, in Keighley, on January 19 2004.

Reading excerpts from the speeches, prosecutor Rodney Jameson QC told the court Griffin said white society had turned into a multiracial "hell".

The jury was shown the speeches in which, when referring to Islam, Griffin said: "This wicked, vicious faith has expanded from a handful of cranky lunatics about 1,300 years ago, to it's now sweeping country after country before it, all over the world. And if you read that book (the Koran), you'll find that that's what they want."

Speaking of recent attacks on young white girls, Griffin said: "The bastards that are in that gang, they are in prison so the public think it's all over. Well, it's not. Because there's more of them.

"The police force and elected governors haven't done a damn thing about it. Their good book (the Koran) tells them that that's acceptable.

"If you doubt it, go and buy a copy and you will find verse after verse and you can take any woman you want as long as it's not Muslim women."

Griffin's speech turned to allegations of violence by Asian Muslims against whites.

He said: "These 18, 19, and 25-year-old Asian Muslims who are seducing and raping white girls in this town right now are not particularly good Muslims, they drink and all the rest of it, but still part of what they are doing comes from what they are taught is acceptable."

Griffin said Asian community leaders would condemn the attacks to the press, but not to the attackers themselves.

"It's part of their plan for conquering countries. It's how they do it," he said.

He added that this would expand to cover the UK "as the last whites try and find their way to the sea".

The court heard Collett addressed the gathering on the same evening, saying: "Let's show these ethnics the door in 2004."

Mr Jameson said that instead of contributing to a debate on multiculturalism, Collett's speeches were "little more than crude racist rants".

Mr Jameson read excerpts from a speech in which Collett said people in Bradford and Keighley were living in a "multiracial hell-hole" because of rapes and muggings which were always carried out by Asian people on white people.

During the speech, Collett said: "If the local papers saw what I was saying tonight, they would call me, and they would call you, racists.

"But the racism is against whites.

"When these Asians go out looking for a victim, they don't go looking for Asian victims. They don't go mugging Asian grandmas, they don't go stabbing each other, they don't go trying to solicit sex off little Pritesh or little Sanjita, they go straight to the whites because they are trying to destroy us and they are the racists.

"If you want these people out and to stop asylum seekers coming in, then vote for the BNP."

In a second speech, delivered at the Crossroads public house in Keighley on March 31 2004, Collett said gangs of Asian lads wanted "to wipe out white people".

He added: "I honestly don't hate asylum seekers - these people are cockroaches and they're doing what cockroaches do because cockroaches can't help what they do, they just do it, like cats miaow and dogs bark.

"They do it because they are what they are and they'll do what they do. The people I hate are the white politicians who have sold us down the line."

He went on: "I'd rather die today with my pride intact, fighting for what I believe in, than live the rest of my life as a sniffling pathetic slave to a multicultural society.

"This is our battle for Britain."

Mr Jameson said the men used the technique of building fear and resentment of Asian people by referring to rapes and muggings. He said they created a "nightmare vision", claiming Asians were entirely responsible for the crimes.

The case against Griffin and Collett arose out of the BBC undercover documentary, The Secret Agent, which was broadcast on July 15 2004.

Griffin, a father of four from Llanerfyl, Powys, mid Wales, denies one count of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred and an alternative count of using words or behaviour likely to stir up racial hatred.

Collett, 25, of Swithland Lane, Rothley, Leicestershire, denies four similar charges which relate to two speeches he made.

The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Norman Jones QC, adjourned the retrial until Monday, when the case for the defence will begin.